Hi everyone!
I used to be a flight sim maniac for years, but life got in the way and I left it all behind about 6 years ago. A lot has changed in the technology-side-of-things, and luckily also in the money-side-of things for me, which means that I have a healthy budget to get back into the flight sim world. i used to only use FSX, but I've done enough research already to know that Prepar3d is the platform I will be going with now.
This is the custom PC that I want to have built for me (here, in the UK), that fits in my budget and I would like to ask for some opinions and advice on it. if it matters - maybe, for the GPU advice - I will be using an Ultra-Wide Curved 49'' Samsung monitor or a regular 40''+ TV; unlikely to be using a 3 monitor set up, as the monitors' bezels annoy me when flying. I also want to get a head-tracker (not VR goggles). Also, all of my questions are in bold italics:
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache
Is it worth upgrading to the i9-9920X? It would take me slightly above my budget to be honest, but is it even worth considering?
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Is this a good motherboard? (I have no idea what a motherboard actually is/does)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)
How much does the MHz matter? I've seen them as low as 2600MHz or as high as 3600MHz.
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
Is it true that Prepar3d is not very GPU hungry? The shop who would build this PC recommended I go for 2070 instead, but because the price difference is only around £150 ($200) I think I'm going to stick with the 2080 SUPER. I could also get the 2080 Ti 11GB, but is there a point?
1st Storage Drive
2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
I am worried that 650W is not enough! Do I need a more powerful one?
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 AC1900 1,300Mbps/5GHz, 600Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
I do know that this is a very powerful PC, however I just want to make sure that I am not missing something or getting something that isn't worth it, only because it fits within my budget. I have very very limited I.T. knowledge and the only way for me to try and figure out the best set up is by picking the most expensive components and putting them together. I will be doing VATSIM flying only, therefore PMDGs, FlightSimLabs and airport sceneries etc. will all be installed too and I want to get the best performance possible.
Any opinions and advice is highly appreciated.
Thank you
Dominik
Custom-built PC advice needed!
Re: Custom-built PC advice needed!
This is an overpriced, outdated, specially designed for SLI motherboard. If you never want to make SLI, the 50 € cheaper MSI MAG Z390 TOMAHAWK is better. It has e.g. USB 3.1 Gen2 (USB-C).
Re: Custom-built PC advice needed!
9900k is your right choice. There's no potential benefit from the i9 9920x THAT CAN'T BE HAD on i9 9900k FOR THE RIGHT PRICE. Intel's 9900k has repeatedly demonstrated a measurable IPC advantages against every challenger that competes against it so far from BOTH intel and AMD. I'd suggest the only competition is the Ryzen 3900x which is more like a move more to the side than forward from the 9900k, and comes with a lot of specific tradeoffs and the risk of buying with practically ZERO known P3d performance benchmarks reported on 3900x
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOTHER Board-- I'm saving that for another day. I will say that as a general rule for the 9900k, you should expect to pair 9900k with at least a $150 Z-390 mother-board if you wanna overclock, add features, and reduce the odds of thermal-throttling the mother-board's power stages. Cheap z390 chipsets are for i5 overclocking and overselling i3 buyers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RAM -- I'd by some DDR4-3600 CL-15 I saw earlier today for $149 iirc
Or I'd go big on DDR4-4### CL-17, which has come down in price, but might have some aplication-specific tradeoffs that make it slightly higher risk/reward gamble than the $149 DDR4-3600 CL-15
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Supply--650W-- I think is underpowered to be an investment. You will quickly become constrained by 650w when considering expansion options, and troubleshooting ANY stuttering. 99% of the time you will never notice, maybe TODAY. But that 1% of times when hardware asks your PSU for more than 650w is only getting bigger and more frequent as you add more cores, NVMe drives, Grapphichs cards, case-fans, etc. All of which are competing with your CPU for power while running P3d
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P3D: Not GPU Hungry? Hahahahahaha-- P3D has single-handedly created more new 1080ti and 2080ti owners than EVERY other single application I know of combined. The highly adaptable settings scalability of P3d means there's always higher-settings ready to adjust up another notch to make a super-computer cry if maxxed out everything available in the settings and add-ons
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M.2 -- I'd suggest you consider an 2tb NVMe M.2 Intel p660 which I just saw for $179-ish. The Samsung drives are usually better to a point, but damn that price for 2TB of NVMe PCIe3(x4) creates a TON of convenience for users with HUGE scenery files. The operations where the intel drive has performance penalties vs Samsung are a worthy trade-off for the ONLY available 2TB NVMe drive available for $179 right now. Nothing else comes close for the next $50 above that Intel NVMe $179 sale price
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CORSAIR H100
Water-cooling, a 240mm AIO radiator was great when they were first introduced on 4-core i7 many years ago. Today that same 240mm radiator will bottleneck your 9900k overclock experience. 360 or BUST!! for 9900k plus more if on available open loop.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THERMAL PASTE - yes, please. More is better, assuming non-conductive material.
[If conductive thermal paste, that complicates things a lot]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USB -- NO FLIGHT SIMMER HAS EVER HAD TOO MANY USB PORTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOTHER Board-- I'm saving that for another day. I will say that as a general rule for the 9900k, you should expect to pair 9900k with at least a $150 Z-390 mother-board if you wanna overclock, add features, and reduce the odds of thermal-throttling the mother-board's power stages. Cheap z390 chipsets are for i5 overclocking and overselling i3 buyers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RAM -- I'd by some DDR4-3600 CL-15 I saw earlier today for $149 iirc
Or I'd go big on DDR4-4### CL-17, which has come down in price, but might have some aplication-specific tradeoffs that make it slightly higher risk/reward gamble than the $149 DDR4-3600 CL-15
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Supply--650W-- I think is underpowered to be an investment. You will quickly become constrained by 650w when considering expansion options, and troubleshooting ANY stuttering. 99% of the time you will never notice, maybe TODAY. But that 1% of times when hardware asks your PSU for more than 650w is only getting bigger and more frequent as you add more cores, NVMe drives, Grapphichs cards, case-fans, etc. All of which are competing with your CPU for power while running P3d
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P3D: Not GPU Hungry? Hahahahahaha-- P3D has single-handedly created more new 1080ti and 2080ti owners than EVERY other single application I know of combined. The highly adaptable settings scalability of P3d means there's always higher-settings ready to adjust up another notch to make a super-computer cry if maxxed out everything available in the settings and add-ons
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M.2 -- I'd suggest you consider an 2tb NVMe M.2 Intel p660 which I just saw for $179-ish. The Samsung drives are usually better to a point, but damn that price for 2TB of NVMe PCIe3(x4) creates a TON of convenience for users with HUGE scenery files. The operations where the intel drive has performance penalties vs Samsung are a worthy trade-off for the ONLY available 2TB NVMe drive available for $179 right now. Nothing else comes close for the next $50 above that Intel NVMe $179 sale price
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CORSAIR H100
Water-cooling, a 240mm AIO radiator was great when they were first introduced on 4-core i7 many years ago. Today that same 240mm radiator will bottleneck your 9900k overclock experience. 360 or BUST!! for 9900k plus more if on available open loop.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THERMAL PASTE - yes, please. More is better, assuming non-conductive material.
[If conductive thermal paste, that complicates things a lot]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USB -- NO FLIGHT SIMMER HAS EVER HAD TOO MANY USB PORTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel
